Frank Cunningham’s Pragmatic Perspective

This article is a longer reflection on Frank Cunningham's Ideas in Context in light of the pragmatic philosophy of John Dewey

Bringing the Neighbours into Infill

Bringing the Neighbourhood Into Infill was a year-long research project conducted within the Graduate Urban Studies Program in 2015-2016. Our partners on this project were Small Housing BC and the City of Surrey. The project was funded by the Bullitt Foundation and investigates how to overcome barriers to increasing the density and diversity of housing forms within Metro Vancouver

South Vancouver and Marpole Neighbourhood Equity Report

This report was created in partnership with South Vancouver Neighbourhood House and Marpole Neighbourhood House

Bringing the Neighbourhood into Infill

Bringing the Neighbourhood Into Infill was a year-long research project conducted within the Graduate Urban Studies Program in 2015-2016. Our partners on this project were Small Housing BC and the City of Surrey. The project was funded by the Bullitt Foundation and investigates how to overcome barriers to increasing the density and diversity of housing forms within Metro Vancouver

Resilience and Pedagogy: Learning From International Field Studies in Urban Resilience in Canada and Germany

What impact does an immersive, international field school experience have on learning about urban resilience; and conversely, what impact does a framing concept of urban resilience have on international field schools in environmental and planning studies? This article reports on qualitative analysis of learning outcomes related to a novel pair of international field schools on the theme of urban resilience. Our field schools took place with German and Canadian students seeking to understand urban resilience in two different contexts, one a context of urban decline and post-industrial transformation, the other a context of urban growth encountering new climate change-related constraints. We found that the elements attributed the most importance for learning by students were the immersive experience of instrumental efforts being taken to advance urban resilience and the opportunity to see concepts of urban resilience put into action in the field. Mixed success was achieved in the students’ ability to incorporate more intrinsic understandings of urban resilience into their experiences; in particular, instructors’ expectations of students’ readiness to engage in social and peer learning were tested, as were the complications in navigating across instrumentalist and intrinsic understandings of urban resilience. This review of field school and resilience pedagogy offers insight into the challenges of teaching and learning in the terrain of urban resilience

The Regional Vancouver Urban Observatory (RVu): counting on Vancouver, "our view" of the region

The Regional Vancouver Urban Observatory (RVu) was established in 2004 to provide a new model for measuring and monitoring regional progress toward sustainability. RVu is the first indicator project in Canada to join the UN-Habitat Global Urban Observatory network. RVu takes up the challenge within sustainability assessment theory to analyze and inform at the same time as it attracts and unites the widest range of citizens possible toward the goal of improving our common future. This article presents the processes carried out by RVu in 2005-2006 to recommend sustainability indicators for the Vancouver region. While RVu’s expert process built upon rational models, RVu’s nonexpert process operationalized a systems modelling approach. RVu has aimed to mesh international expectations and regional aspirations, expert- and citizenbased views of progress, and hard line and storyline trends. The process and results hold lessons for other regions grappling to apply sustainability principles in practice

Social Quality of Life in High-Density Built Environments

This report was prepared with the assistance of leaders of the Hey Neighbour Collective, including Michelle Hoar and Stacy Barter, and other researchers and participants, including Sarah van Baarsen, Robyn Lee, Lainey Martin, Sara Emami, Dorin Mahdavi, Callista Ottoni, Sydney Boulton, Niloofar Hedayatti, Sogol Haji Hosseini, and Rojan Nasiri